Jetlag sucked. Everybody knew it, almost everybody complained about it or warned friends going on a trip, and everybody claimed they could beat it. The 707th included tips for overcoming it in every briefing for a long deployment she'd sat in on, simple stuff mostly, things you would remember quickly because there was seldom time to let your internal clock adjust on its own - no naps after landing, get some exercise and air, and most definitely don't spend the last night before flight like she had. The hangover was small time, it had been gone long before her plane touched down in Libya, but travelling across several time zones on short notice was enough of a blow coming off a full night's sleep; a nap on the plane helped, but on the way to the Chinook she still felt like someone had reached inside her, twisted all her organs around and put them back out of order. She'd given the soldiers aboard - so many soldiers, so few scientists; something didn't smell right about that - a wave and a "[i]Sowi[/i] Lee Hyun-seong, nice to meet you" before takeoff, but few responded or even seemed to notice, so she'd trudged over to a seat with leaden legs and settled down for the trip across the desert.

Maybe it was the constant [i]thrum-thrum-thrum[/i] of engine and rotor in the background of her reading, or the way the heat outside seeped through the metal to wash over her, or just years of developing the ability to sleep anywhere when she needed it enough, but the next thing she knew a gentle hand was shaking her awake and a voice told her they'd landed. Corporal Simelane was a Canadian soldier by way of South Africa, and their conversation did wonders for clearing the last cobwebs from Lee's mind even as her focus shifted to examining the warehouse interior and all the various figures buzzing about within. Everyone, it seemed, had a little stake in this little skywatching business - though perhaps that had been obvious the moment she was asked to leave Seoul as part of the Republic's first contribution to the effort. Skywatchers didn't need men and women with guns unless they expected not to like what they saw.

She couldn't lie, though, the whole "secret base underneath the desert" thing? Not bad as arrangements went, as much as it felt like it was out of every spy movie she'd ever seen make its way east. She and her companion parted ways at the freight elevator, assigned to different squads, but they'd agreed to meet up at the mess hall sometime after, leaving Lee to join the rest of Echo. They seemed an interesting lot - an Englishman who'd just got done talking as she arrived, a Chinese man who reeked of officiousness, a few Americans who looked like they were sizing everything up, a Japanese man holding a katana like he actually expected to need it, that Mexican woman whose fingers made Lee cringe a little - though apparently few had much to say about this whole situation. Even so, when the elevator finally reached the main part of the base she could practically feel the disappointment radiating off some of their group as it became apparent they were dealing less with a James Bond-esque superbase and more... well, what Lee had honestly expected from all the reports she'd heard of UNXIPU: a secure but plainly half-finished structure with room to grow but much to expand upon. Some of the officers she'd met would've had someone's head for stuff like the empty mission control or the bare rock walls in some corridors, but surely it wasn't all bad. She knew she wasn't the only one who'd stared a moment at that new plane in the hangar, and the state of the armoury and mess hall made it evident this structure wasn't the work of people who didn't know what they were doing; hell, it existing at all managed that much.

Besides, the Republic of Korea wasn't in the business of forgetting its friends, or its debt to the UN. There was a time the North had all of the peninsula save Busan under its heel, but the international community didn't abandon the Republic, and the US especially stayed with them for all those decades; the decision makers in Seoul remembered who had helped make their nation great, and so would Lee. There was too much obvious money put into this whole show, and into acquiring personnel, for UNXIPU to be the farce it almost looked like at a glance, even if the amenities would be sorely lacking for a while (or at least until more of her personal effects got shipped over; the laptop was private, but the rest she wouldn't mind sharing until there was a proper rec room). Sure, Echo Squad's barracks weren't a luxury suite, but was it really realistic to expect anything else?

If she heard anyone complaining too much about the ring of bunk beds, it would be hard not to let them know how back home, recruits at boot camp only had the space immediately in front of their cubby as a living area, or what it was like getting some rest while dodging NKSOF patrols in the Taebaek Mountains. A real bed of any type could make someone want to sob from relief coming off that. Lee usually wasn't the "sob with relief" type, but after spending most of the day in a plane or helicopter her muscles were making their desire to settle on something actually comfortable for a minute or two quite clear, enough so that she almost didn't step out of the way in time when one of the others - the American woman, a Marine by the look of her - marched by to claim the upper part of the bunk she'd been heading towards. Oh well, Lee actually liked the bottom bunks; it was easy to get privacy by tying sheets or extra clothes to the side of the bed above you, and you could get up and moving quicker if you were in a hurry, which happened pretty often in Army life. The mattress on this one had about as little give as she thought was possible for things not made of metal, but a little firmness was good for you, a bed you could sink in to was really a civilian thing; as long as it gave good support for the back, and there was a warm blanket and comfortable pillow, she seldom thought it worth complaining about.

Maybe she was trying a little too hard to be optimistic about this whole thing. This wasn't exactly her first time thousands of miles away from all her family and friends, but usually the "why" of the whole thing was clearer, and something about being out here without her usual team left a knot in her stomach. They'd been given some extra furlough time for their performance in that affair with the defector's family, but knowing they were probably still safe at home couldn't beat having them here next to her right now; after three years of working so closely together, high command might as well have asked her to chop off her right arm before getting on the plane. Even just having Choi around might have made the whole "this UN UFO-chasing organisation wants elite soldiers from everywhere" thing feel less weird, but well, Mi-na couldn't help that her leg was still healing. When her laptop got here she'd have to send them all an e-mail, let them know she got here - undoubtedly she couldn't say where "here" [i]was[/i], of course - okay.

For now, though, not much left to do but wait. Doubtless some member of local brass would be in soon, or they'd receive some orders for proceeding with this whole situation, but for the moment all there was to do was try to settle in. After a last look around at what her new squadmates were getting up to, she cracked open her book and tried to find where she'd left off back when the helicopter ride started so many hours ago.